MEDT 6461

Fall 2012
Shanna Pavlak

Proposed Three-Year Budget, 2013/2014 to 2015/2016
Sandtown Middle School Media Center
About the school:
Sandtown Middle School is located in Fulton County, Georgia. The school is home to 1140
students. Ninety-eight percent of the students are black. One percent of students are Hispanic and
one percent are mixed race. Ten percent of students have a disability. About 60 percent of
students are on free or reduced lunch. The school has nearly 100 teachers working. The school
library collection includes about 20,000 print and non-print items but several items are marked as
lost in the system and others are out-of-date and need to be weeded.
Statement of Needs:
This budget is based on the needs of Sandtown Middle Schools media center (SMCMC) over
the next three years. The SMSMC is committed to providing students and teachers with an
excellent collection of materials to promote academic achievement and independent learning.
This year, Georgia schools have adopted a new set of standards put forth by the federal
government. These new standards put an increased emphasis on reading comprehension skills
and writing abilities across the core subject areas. Because of this increased focus, the SMSMC
needs to increase and update its collection of books and materials to help students keep up with
the rigorous standards put forth by the state. The media center is also requesting funds to help
meet school goals and to help target problem areas for students taking standardized tests. Last
year, the media center was awarded $14,000 for print and non-print needs, and $5,000 for
supplies. No funding was allotted for professional development expenses equipment. The
principal has stated one of her main goals is to make the Sandtown school library an award-
winning media center. In order to meet that goal, the growing needs of students and teachers
during this time of transition in the standards, as well as other school goals, the media center will
need more funding. We are proposing the following increased budget for the next three school
years.

Category Requested
Amount
2013-2014
Requested
Amount
2014-2015
Requested
Amount
2015-2016
Totals:
Print Needs
Fiction Books $5,000.00 $7,000.00 $9,000.00 $21,000.00
Non-Fiction Books $3,000.00 $4,000.00 $5,000.00 $12,000.00
Periodicals $250.00 $200.00 $150.00 $600.00
Reference $2,000.00 $2,000.00 $2,000.00 $6,000.00

Equipment
Computers/Software $1,000.00 $1,000.00 $1,000.00 $3,000.00
LCD Projectors $7,000.00 $7,000.00 $7,000.00 $21,000.00
Headphones $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $1,500.00
CD Players $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $900.00

Non-print needs
Audio Books $500.00 $700.00 $900.00 $2,100.00
Instructional Videos $200.00 $300.00 $400.00 $900.00
E-Books $500.00 $600.00 $750.00 $1,850.00
Online Databases $2,000.00 $2,000.00 $2,000.00 $6,000.00

Supplies
Miscellaneous: (tape, pens, laminating
film, book tape, paper, posters, bulletin
board supplies, bookmarks)
$6,000.00 $7,000.00 $8,000.00 $21,000.00

Conferences
Georgia Council of Media Organizations
Conference
$500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $1,500.00

Total: $28,750.00 $33,100.00 $37,500.00 $99,350.00

Justifications:
Print Needs: The implementation of the Common Core means the SMSMC will need new
fiction, non-fiction, reference books and periodicals to meet the new rigorous standards set forth
by the state and federal government. We are asking for a slight increase in funding over the next
three years to keep up with the growing student and teacher population, as well as with inflation.
According to the School Library Journal, new young adult fiction hardback books cost over $27
each. (Miller, 2012) The average cost of an adult fiction book in hardback runs about $29, while
a hardback non-fiction costs about $27. The proposed budget allotment for books will allow us to
add roughly 172 fiction books and 111 non-fiction books to the collection in 2013. The media
center will further increase its collection the following year by 241 fiction books and 148 non-
fiction books. In 2015, we will add another 310 fiction books and 185 non-fiction books to the
collection. In all, were hoping to increase the fiction and non-fiction selection by more than a
thousand. The expanded collection will provide our students with materials that are challenging,
relevant, and current to help them in their endeavors towards academic excellence.
There is currently a focus in the school on boosting CRCT scores in certain subject areas. In the
sixth and eighth grades last year, fewer than 70 percent of students met or exceeded standards in
the science portion of the test. Fewer than 80 percent of students in those grade levels met or
exceeded standards in social studies. (Grade 3 Criterion, 2012) Because of these results, the
media center anticipates that some of the purchases in the fiction and non-fiction sections will be
made with these results in mind.
The media center will be cutting its funding request for periodicals down over the next three
years. Many of the magazines and newspapers we usually keep in stock are now easily and
readily available online for little or no extra cost. We will be depending more heavily on the
electronic versions in the coming years.
The media center is also requesting funds to update its reference section. There are no scheduled
increases in funding, however, because the media center plans to have students use the internet
and online databases for a lot of the research that would require them to use reference materials.
It is still necessary for the media center to carry hard copies of reference materials, however, for
check out and for instances where reliable information cannot be located online. We will be
focusing some of the reference book funding on materials aimed at improving the previously
mentioned CRCT scores and students writing skills. Last year, 10 percent of eighth graders did
not meet standards on the Georgia Writing Assessment and the school has become focused on
boosting these scores. (Grade, Georgia Writing Assessment, 2012.)
Equipment:
In order to best serve our students and teachers, the media center must keep its equipment up to
date and in working order. This means we must make sure our computers are in good condition
and equipped with useful and educational software. We must also have enough equipment for
teachers to check out for classroom lessons. The media center is expected to get all new
computers this year, so less money will be needed in this category in the immediate future for
this particular expenditure. We are asking for just enough to cover adding new software to the
computers, such as educational games. The next priority item on the media centers list is
additional new projectors, which we have included in this three-year budget plan. Teachers at
Sandtown Middle School are in need of more LCD projectors for their classrooms. We currently
have nearly 100 teachers at the school but the media center has just five projectors. The book
keeper and technology director also have access to a total of 10 additional projectors. Still, that
number is nowhere near close to meeting the demand for these devices. The media center would
like to add enough projectors to its inventory to cover half of the staff over the next three years,
plus a couple of extra. So we are looking at purchasing 42 new projectors in that time, or 14 each
year for the next three years, to help ease some of the heavy demand and wait times for teachers
needing to use these projectors.
The media center is also working towards helping the school meet its recent goals of increasing
the percentage of disabled students who are proficient in reading. In order to meet that need, the
media center plans to create a special listening area for these students that will include a wide
selection of audio books paired with physical books. This necessary addition to the media center
will require the library to buy more CD players and headphones as well.
Non-print Needs:
The media center is asking for increases in funding for audio books, instructional videos and e-
books over the next three years. The increases are based on inflation and a growing demand in
the school by students and teachers. Many students own their own e-readers or tablets and have
requested more access to e-books. The media center wants to make sure it provides as many
avenues as possible to students wanting to read, either for school or for pleasure. That is why we
believe it is necessary to begin adding some e-book options to our collection.
It is also necessary for the media center to keep the collection of audio books large and up-to-
date in order to serve our special needs students. Instructional videos must also be current and
relevant so they can be useful to teachers using them in lessons.
We are also including funding for online databases. These new databases will help the media
center cut back on periodicals, which are easily damaged and destroyed through frequent use. It
will also allow the media center to buy fewer reference materials that have potential to become
outdated.
Supplies:
Various supplies are imperative for the day-to-day workings of the media center. Its important
that we have bulletin board materials to post so we can inform students and teachers of what is
going on in the media center. We also need basic staples including pens, paper, tape, laminating
film and book tape to fulfill our duties in the library. Teachers frequently use the laminator to
protect important papers and to create educational materials for their classrooms. The media
center uses the machine as well for those purposes. We have asked for increases in funding over
the next three years based on inflation and the growing needs we face in the media center as our
student body and staff grows.
Conferences:
It is important the school library media specialist stay current on all things in the profession.
Therefore, it is imperative that the media specialist be able to attend workshops and conferences
related to the field. The media specialist plans to attend the Georgia Council of Media
Organizations conference for the next three years and has included expenses for her attendance
in the budget request.










References:
6-8 English Language Arts CCGPS Overview. (2011). Georgia Department of Education.
Retrieved from https://www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Pages/ELA-6-8.aspx
Grade 8, Georgia Writing Assessment, 2012. Fulton County Schools. Retrieved from
https://portal.fultonschools.org/departments/Strategy_Innovation/Assessment_Accountab
ility/Documents/Test_Scores/G8Writing12.pdf
Grade Criterion Referenced Competency Tests, Spring 2012. Fulton County Schools. Retrieved
from
https://portal.fultonschools.org/departments/Strategy_Innovation/Assessment_Accountab
ility/Documents/Test_Scores/CRCT%20SP12%20Results%20by%20School%20Final%2
0071312.pdf
Miller, R.T. (March 1, 2012) Fuel for Your Fire: Good data offers a reality check thats
invaluable for building libraries. School Library Journal. Retrieved from
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/893523-
312/fuel_for_your_fire_good.html.csp
School Profile 2011-2012, Sandtown Middle School. Retrieved from
http://portal.fultonschools.org/School_Profile/Documents/DS/DS_sandtown.pdf